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Monday, 1 March 2010

'The Pharaohs' make their way to Wembley...

England v Egpyt

Another pointless friendly right in the thick of the season, but nonetheless a great game in prospect.

A game which most people expect England to win comfortably en route to the World Cup finals in South Africa, however, taking a quick glance at the World Rankings shows you that Egypt are just one place behind England, where they lie tenth.

Capello supposedly chose Egypt for this game with the idea that they provide a similar challenge to which his England side will face against Algeria in the World Cup group stage.

Looking at the Egyptians, it's very very difficult to understand how they didn't qualify from the African World Cup qualifying group, especially with the best record in the African cup of nations out of any team and recently setting a new record for 19 consecutive unbeaten African Cup of Nations matches.

With talent such as Zaki and Zidan, Egypt should have had no problems qualifying, however, they have only previously qualified for the World Cup twice, going out in the first round on both occasions.

England have no doubt named the strongest squad available with a few new faces filling in the gaps. The likes of Hart, Shawcross and Cole will look to impress if they get the oppurtunity and it will be interesting to see how the England fans react to Shawcross and Terry throughout the game. I'm sure every England fan will hope to see Rooney starting after the pantomime regarding his injured knee and apparent flu, and i'm sure this will happen. Wayne is always eager to play and impress and will look to add more goals to his recent impressive form.

The game will not be as one-sided as many people think it will be but a good, strong performance from the three lions should ensure a victory which will start the World Cup preparation positively and hopefully lead England to glory in Africa.